U.S. border agent shoots, kills person in California scuffle

SAN DIEGO, California (Reuters) - A U.S. border agent on patrol
in Southern California shot and killed a suspected illegal
immigrant during a confrontation not far from the border with
Mexico, after the agent was pelted with rocks, officials said.

"Fearing for his life the agent discharged his service issued
weapon, resulting in the death of one assailant," the U.S. Border
Patrol said in a statement after the incident in the Otay
Mountain area near the Mexican border east of San Diego.

The Border Patrol said the agent had been trying to arrest
several suspected illegal immigrants when he was hit by rocks,
one of which struck him in the head. Two suspected illegal
immigrants were arrested during the incident, which took place
before 7 a.m. (1500 GMT), the Border Patrol said.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been criticized in
recent years over concerns that agents may have sometimes been
too quick to use lethal force. Sixteen members of Congress called
for a review of use-of-force incidents and policy in 2012. The
agency said in September it would train officers to defuse
threats.

Tuesday's shooting, which took place about 100 yards (meters)
from the border in a rugged area 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean,
was not the first to involve stone-throwers.

In 2011, a Border Patrol agent in Arizona fired through the
border fence in Nogales, killing a 17-year-old Mexican
stone-thrower. The killing spurred protests. The U.S. Justice
Department said last year it would not bring charges against that
agent because the fatal injury occurred in Mexico.

Authorities did not immediately release the gender and age of the
suspect shot to death on Tuesday, and did not say who threw the
rocks at the Border Patrol agent. The San Diego County Sheriff's
Department was investigating the shooting, said Lieutenant Jason
Vickery.

The agent suffered injuries to his head and hand when he was
struck by rocks, said Gabe Pacheco, a representative with the
National Border Patrol Council, a union for U.S. border agents.
man who fought with him and tried to take the agent's gun.

A month ago, a U.S. Border Patrol agent who had been tracking
illegal border crossers shot and killed a man who fought with him
and tried to take his gun in the Arizona desert near Mexico,
police said.